Michelle Dean responds to the internet backlash against the appointment of Isaac Fitzgerald as Buzzfeed's book editor with the argument that Buzzfeed—and the acknowledgement of the internet’s role in literary culture—won’t kill book reviewing, though ”snobbery might.”

Haruki Murakami has already named a novel after the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood,” and now he’s raiding their oeuvre again for titles. His latest short story, “Drive My Car,” was published in the Japanese magazine Bungeishunju last week.

A New York Times account of the legal troubles surrounding Gore Vidal’s estate not only

The relationship between Japan and South Korea has been fraught for years due to a history of territorial disputes. Over the past two decades, however, the soaring popularity of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami in South Korea has helped mend relations between the countries. Murakami earned an unprecedented $1.4 million advance in South Korea for his forthcoming novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, and according to an essay in the Asahi Shimbum, is single-handedly “responsible for triggering and fueling the Japanese literature boom in South Korea.”

BuzzFeed has hired former

“Lacks discipline,” “the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school,” and “not a good novelist” are just a few of the barbs Norman Mailer directed at his contemporaries.

Graphic novel imprint Fantagraphics has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $150,000 by Dec. 5 or face the possibility of having to roll back its 2014 publishing lineup. The company’s finances were put in jeopardy last summer, following the death of publisher Kim Thompson. Thirteen books planned for the spring and summer of this year did not come out as a result, and the publisher is now struggling to recoup losses.

Unless

While her Facebook-founding brother continues to spread the gospel of social media, Randi Zuckerberg is making a name for herself by writing cautionary books about the dangers of living online. Her first book, Dot Complicated, is a “cross between memoir and how-to guide” about navigating the social internet, and her latest effort is a children’s book about “about a young girl called Dot who discovers the fun of playing outside when her mother takes away her tablet, laptop, cellphone, and desktop computer. “

Moby Lives reprints the totally charming form letter Margaret Atwood sends out when

Brad Stone, author of the new book The Everything Store, has made a new enemy in Mackenzie Bezos—the Amazon founder’s wife. In a 900-word, one-star review on Amazon, Mackenzie Bezos criticized the book for inaccuracy, bias, and failing to include accounts of the “supportive and inspiring culture" that exists at Amazon. For a more impartial take, read Astra Taylor’s review of The Everything Store in the Dec/Jan issue of Bookforum.

Relatedly, in a long, thoughtful post on Reuters, Felix Salmon interrogates the belief that Amazon is a mortal threat to books, and ends up arguing that what the

Harper Lee is bringing suit against a local museum in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, for allegedly exploiting her fame and the prestige of To Kill a Mockingbird without compensating her for it. The lawsuit has divided the small town, reports the Guardian, and left many residents wondering whether Lee, who is deaf and blind, is being manipulated by lawyers. Lee’s lawyers filed a trademark application last August, and sued the Monroe County Heritage Museum two weeks ago, after receiving an opposition. The suit accuses the the museum of ““palming off its goods,’ including t-shirts, coffee

Cue the collective sigh of relief: Morrissey’s autobiography will be released in the U.S. after all. Only weeks after becoming the fastest-selling music memoir of all time in the UK, the powers-that-be announced that the Moz's memoir—a Penguin Classic—will go on sale on this side of the Atlantic on Dec. 3.

Amazon is starting a literary magazine. Day One is a weekly digital magazine that features poetry and short stories with a focus on “new and undiscovered” writers. Issues are delivered directly to subscribers’ Kindles, and an annual subscription is $20.

At the Virginia Quarterly Review,

Literary circles have been abuzz this week about an essay in the New York Times in which Tim Kreider laments the fact that it’s now culturally acceptable to ask writers to write for free. “I’ve been trying to understand,” Kreider muses, “the mentality that leads people who wouldn’t ask a stranger to give them a keychain or a Twizzler to ask me to write them a thousand words for nothing.” Responding to the piece in the New Republic, Luke O’Neill calls working for free “a necessary evil,” and argues that “young writers entering the marketplace for the first time would be doing themselves a

The Los Angeles Review of Books launches a new section, “Around the World,” which is dedicated to profiling “thinkers, writers, artists, and activists in countries all over the world, whose work transcends national borders and boundaries, whether it be in painting, music, poetry, or fiction, journalism, public service, or advocacy in the public interest.”

If you’ve been curious about which books New Yorkers have been checking out of public libraries, wonder no longer: The NYPL has been releasing lists of the most-checked out books, both electronic and physical. Last September, the most

A year ago this week, after tearing through the Caribbean and up the Eastern Seaboard, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, and worked its way on to New York City and beyond. The storm flooded subways, destroyed homes, knocked out power grids, left at least ninety people dead in New York and New Jersey, and became one of the costliest natural disasters in American history (second only to Katrina). In New York, the storm did extensive damage to the sleepy residential communities of the Rockaways, a thin peninsula that runs along the south shore of Long Island Sound. In a matter of days,

Goodnight, Goodnight, Moon? Per the New York Times, some contemporary toddlers have highbrow (and expensive) sensibilities that go beyond mere children's classics. “Today’s babies and toddlers are treated to board books that are miniature works of literary art: classics like Romeo and Juliet, Sense and Sensibility and Les Misérables; luxuriously produced counting primers with complex graphic elements; and even an Art for Baby book featuring images by the contemporary artists Damien Hirst and Paul Morrison.”

David Bowie and Morrissey comment on the passing of rock star and icon Lou Reed, who

Less than three years as taking over as the head of Amazon’s publishing division (which now has 11 imprints and 27 editors), Larry Kirshbaum is leaving the company to once again work as a literary agent. Publishers Weekly wonders if this is a sign of trouble for Amazon’s publishing arm:“Amazon’s genre publishing program will not be affected by Kirshbaum’s departure although the future of the trade operation is uncertain. Among the issues confronting the publishing program has been poor distribution into bookstores."

In a statement to a fan site, Morrissey has made it clear that he was not part